When one deals with as many doctors as I have in my life I guess the odds of working with some bad ones are pretty good. When I lived in Atlanta I went to a world-renowned spinal cord hospital that really was too full of themselves to figure out what was really wrong with me. Another doctor here in Connecticut was equally inept. I finally found a doctor last year that took care of the problem in short order. I was no longer in absurd pain and suddenly had energy.

As some of you know, back in April of 2003 I began to develop a problem with my foot. Since that time I've been going to a reputable hospital on a weekly basis to have it looked at. Each week the doctor basically looks at it, says it doesn't look much worse and says he'll see me back in a week. That's been the pattern for ten months. Frustrated with the lack of progress, I decided to see another doctor. He immediately believed that I had a bone infection and ordered up a round of tests. Guess what? I have two small infected bones in my foot. They've most likely been infected since I had surgery on that foot over twenty years ago. I'm not kidding. The previous doctor, one of Stamford's most respected surgeons, never even contemplated such a scenario. I won't allow myself any "woe is me" response, but it's incredibly frustrating.

Oh, and I also now have a benign staph infection that comes from hospitals but isn't treatable with any known antibiotic. Fun stuff, fun stuff.

So the message here is to be your own advocate. You're entitled to good healthcare. Sometimes, though, those people who you expect to provide it can't or don't. Don't be afraid to question. Don't be afraid to piss people off. You're the one who has to live with the consequences of their decisions and they aren't always the best ones.